UGH! (But it's ok)

New web filter.  Kicking us off every 8 minutes.  Means impossible to watch the 15 minute video.  Google Drive not working at all.  Kids can't access the assignment.  All of this happening in 2nd block.

But...it will not defeat me.  I am nothing if I'm not flexible.  We are rolling with it.

But that doesn't diminish my frustration.

Reflections: History of Slavery Through Time.

We are finished!  A month later than planned, this due to two reasons.  Snow and Fantasticness.

Snow days on a block schedule are MURDER.  I didn't see my 8th graders for an entire week.  But I did get to spend three days cuddled with my girls at home...  If this wasn't a "no fault" year for state assessments I would be freaking out about how much time I have lost and how behind I am from previous years.  I am hoping the changes in standards and testing will help keep me more relaxed on my schedule.

Fantasticness.  It became apparent very early on in the project (after day one..) that in order to give the kids enough time for their ideas to turn in to products, this was going to take a lot longer than I previously thought.

TIME. WELL. SPENT.

That said.  I thought a list of pros and cons would be good for anyone thinking of doing a similar project.  Here is a list of what WE came up with (I say "we" because the kids helped me with this, their struggles, their reflections, and their successes.)

Pros:
* The students worked independently. They thrived when challenged with LESS instruction from me.  They came up with ideas for projects I never would have thought to assign.  The level of UNIQUE creativity was just amazing.

* They enjoyed the project and talked about it outside of class.  Kids who NEVER do homework were working on this outside of class.  They didn't see it as homework.  I never once heard "When am I going to need to know this?"

* They explored new apps, if they didn't know how to do something they wanted done, THEY looked it up or WE collaborated together to figure something out.  Sometimes as teachers we can get frustrated with the lack of student understanding and just give in and give out answers (don't act like you've never done it...), but this project took that away.  I truly didn't know the answers to some of their questions.  They had to be independent, collaborate with their partner and seek out the answer for themselves. 

* We had some STANDOUT presentations that were just AMAZING, the projects that weren't great were good.  And even the projects that turned out to be duds (and there definitely were...), those students still LEARNED MORE about slavery than if I would have just given a test.

Cons:
* Many groups wanted to do humorous presentations.  Slavery isn't funny.  After hearing some of the ideas we had to figure out ways to either scrap the funny concept all together or put humor in the characters rather than the subject.  After doing this project I have thought about moving it to a different unit of study (maybe Constitutional Convention) where there could be some humor added, but that comes at the beginning of the school year and I'm not sure if the kids would be ready.  Lost of thinking to do here...

* Early finishers.  I mentioned before that this took quite a bit of time for those groups that were working super hard and going that extra mile.  Well that was true for about 90% of the groups.  There were about 10% who finished early.  I had one group done in a day and a half.  What to do with them?  For this project, I pretty much left them alone as long as they weren't bothering or distracting other groups.  They were good to use as recorders and I could give them simple tasks to do for me.  I know when I do this next time I need to have something in place for them to do.  Maybe something truly awful and boring so they will want to do anything and everything to make their project better.  Any ideas out there???

*  Grading is hard...I didn't create a specific rubric based on specific guidelines that I didn't set.  I started out saying here's what you need to do

1. Have technology:  That's easy.  No technology no points.  They all have technology in some way shape or form.
2. Be creative.  This is the really hard one.  It is hard to justify one groups creativity vs. another.  I tried to link it to having a job in the future.  Someday you may have to give a presentation to a client.  If they don't like it, they don't buy it, or hire you, or pick your firm.  I am your client.  Impress me.  PowerPoint presentations will get a low creativity score. 
3. Presentation:  You have to be part of the presentation whether you are speaking, acting, drawing, singing etc... PRACTICE. 

I'm still not convinced that I graded this correctly.  Do letter grades even match this type of project?  This is truly the most difficult part of the entire project for me.  Letting go of the control was easy, but justifying the letter grade is VERY difficult. 

After some more reflection and exploration into rubrics, I have found ways to assess this project in the future.  Rubistar has some great ideas on how to score originality (a MUCH better word than creativity).  There ways to give expectations without limiting the possibilities. 

* Absences??? This problem didn't hit each group of students, but the ones who did experience the sick partner would probably say this is the biggest problem they had.  Absence can't be helped and they can frustrate the best and brightest students.  One thing I will do for sure next year is make sure the kids share project information from iPad to iPad.  If the partner who has ALL the material on his or her iPad is gone, this leaves the other out to dry.  Maybe that will solve itself if I move the project to the beginning of the school year and not smack dab in the middle of flu season.

All in all, this was a great project and I enjoyed seeing the results it yielded.  This being the first time I let go of the control, I liked it and hope to have more adventures with this method in the future.

Ohhh Yah!

The Scene:  The 8th graders are working hard on their History of Slavery projects that I detailed here.  It is going much better than I ever predicted.  They are busy working, there are ALL KINDS of awesome ideas, they are talking about it outside of my class and on days they don't even come to me, and best of all...I get to walk around and enjoy. 

Proof that this is going the way I wanted...

8th grade boy (Let's call him Billy) walks in the door from recording something in the hall way:  "Hey!  Where is Mrs. Weber?"

The class laughs at him as I turn around sitting with another group of kids working RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM.

Someone yells out:  "HA!  She's right in front of you!  Geeze!"

Billy says:  "Oh wow...you blend right in with the other students!"

And that, my friends, is what I was going for. 

Not to look as young as a teenager again (you couldn't pay me to relive my 8th grade style.)

But to be mixed in with the kids; watching, facilitating, and providing assistance when needed. 

Not up in front of the class instructing. 

I still can't wait for presentation day!

Letting Go...

I'm Back!

After 7 weeks (and 2 more bonus weeks of Christmas Break) off for maternity leave, I'm back in full force in the classroom.

Well...I might not be "full force" yet.  I kinda loved being at home with my cute little girls, and getting a 22 month old toddler and a newborn ready to go in the morning before school has taken some adjusting.  But we're making it work.

In my short return, I have picked up where I left off at the beginning of the year.  Trying to use the new technology placed in the hands of our kids, making small changes to each unit to incorporate said technology, and implementing new Social Studies state standards at the same time.

As I try creating new activities, converting old lessons, and figuring out apps, I had to remind myself of the purpose of the iPads, and technology in general. 

Creation.

Having the kids create takes my teaching to some major uncharted waters.  Not to mention changing up the learning for the students.  This is new to them also. 

It requires me to let go of the control and put it in the hands of the students.

Can you say SCARY.

And completely different than any other world I have taught. 

I give instructions.  You follow.  I grade based on how well you followed those instructions.  If you don't like your grade I can point to the specific place on the detailed rubric where you didn't follow my instructions.

So here I go with my first scary attempt at giving up control.

I decided to do a little mini unit on slavery in the United States.  Definitely not spending as much time as I could on the topic, but enough to give the students a better understanding of slavery and how it affected the creation of America.  At the end of the unit, I didn't want to do a boring old test.  Instead, I gave the students a list of events that had something to do with slavery.  I took them to the library and they spent two days researching what those events had to do with slavery. 

Then I gave them their task.

With a partner, create a presentation of the history slavery through time.  Use technology available to you.  Present it to the class.  Be creative.  Think outside the box. 

GO!!!

That's it.  No other instructions, no specific directions on how to use certain apps.  I don't care.  You want to use it,  you figure it out.

They started off very slow, and VERY conditioned.  Immediately 90% of the groups went straight to Keynote or some other PowerPoint-type app to create a typical, very boring presentation.  It is almost as if we have conditioned the creativity right out of them.

I had to remind them.  They had NO SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS on what to do with the information.

The next thing they did was go straight for the apps and try to figure out which one they wanted to do.  This also boxed them in because they went only to the apps they were familiar with.  I told them to try and reverse their thinking.  Come up with an idea that you want to try and then see if you have an app that can help you do that. 

Once they shed the restraints of past projects and years of following STEP.BY.STEP instructions the ideas started to flow. 

Here are just a few of the cool ideas so far...

• A clay-mation video
• A newscast
• A QR code scavenger hunt! 
• A song parody

WOW!

And this is just day one.

Coming up with the idea was the easy part.  Now they have to DO THE WORK.  Each and every group has the potential to have an awesomely creative and different presentation, they just have to put in the effort to make it that way! 

I can honestly say I haven't been this excited about something in my classroom since, well, before maternity leave, maybe even all year.  It was a FUN day filled with brainstorming, learning, and noise...oh there was lots of noise.

I can't wait for presentation day!

Confederation Blocks!

My 8th graders are learning about the Articles of Confederation.

Articles of...what?

Confederation.  Yup, that was the first constitution that governed America during and after the Revolution.  Most Americans have forgotten that they ever learned about it.  If they did...

The Articles of Confederation didn't last very long.  It was our first attempt at creating a new country.  There were errors, weaknesses.  It needed to be changed.

I have always seemed to struggle teaching the kids about the Articles of Confederation and it's weaknesses.  I've done it through a mix of lecture and illustration in the past.  They always seem to struggle to understand, and even remember it.

This year I added a new piece.  A simulation.

I love simulations.

Especially when the students start off with a cool task, having no idea how it is connected to our current topic, and then see their faces when it all "comes together."

Today's cool task.  Build a castle.

I had the kids sitting in six groups.  Each group received a box with blocks.  The blocks were NOT distributed evenly (on purpose).  I gave them these instructions.

1.  With the materials given to you, create the biggest and strongest castle you can.
2.  This is a COMPETITION.  Winners get prizes.
3.  You may share, trade, or give blocks to/with other groups, but again this is a COMPETITION.
4.  You have 5 minutes.  GO!

Immediately the group who received the least amount of blocks start going from group to group asking for any blocks they might be willing to spare.  None give any.  The poor group ends up with a very tiny and sad looking castle, which took all but 30 seconds to put together...if they took their time.  While the other groups are working on getting the best they can out of the blocks they were given.

Times up!

The group with the most blocks wins.  (No real surprise here...)

My point.  I always have a point.

I ask the students "What if I told you that the group given the least amount of blocks was in charge of having a castle strong enough to protect our entire class?"

They all look worried, and someone says "well, we're dead."

If I would have told you that, at the beginning, how might that have changed the look of that group's castle.

"Oh...we would have all pooled our blocks together!"

Exactly.

What they just experienced was one of the major weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation.

The Federal Government had to ask the individual states to provide troops for the nation, but each stated wanted their own troops, for their own military.

We may have been called the "United States of America," but we definitely weren't UNITED.

I think this year's 8th graders will remember and understand the Articles of Confederation and why it failed better than any class I've had in the past.  They had fun, got to build something, and learned!

Once again...this idea was not mine.  Teachers beg, borrow, and steal ideas from each other and then modify to fit their classrooms.  I am no exception.  Thank you Nathan Mc for this activity, you are awesome!

Needs for Survival: CHUCK!

We had a great day today in 7th grade Kansas History.  Very cool things happening in class with an activity that examines humans using natural resources to survive. Which then leads us into studying different buffalo parts the Native Americans would have used.  

The activity starts out with the kids brainstorming the top 5 essential needs to survive.  The list is very basic and every class ends up with the same five items.

Food

Water

Shelter

Clothing 

Fire

The next step is to have the kids brainstorm in their groups the materials that would be needed to fulfill the top five.  (Such as weapons to hunt animals for food, or trees for wood to use as shelter, etc...)

As we prepare for the class discussion I ask the question again.  "What materials do we need for our five items?"

And without missing a beat, someone yells out "CHUCK NORRIS!"

I love middle school!  :o)

"Write a summary about what you just read..."

As a student I dreaded, no I HATED seeing that requirement on a worksheet.

How in the world do you actually do that.  I'm pretty sure no one ever actually TAUGHT me how to write a summary.  It was like as soon as I got in middle school the teachers just assumed I knew how.

I didn't.

I didn't know how in high school.

Even college.

I just wrote stuff down and hoped it was different enough that the teacher wouldn't think I plagiarized.

As a teacher I hate it even more.  It's a question that I've always felt like I should include at the end of an assignment.  But I'm no better than the teachers I had when it comes to asking for summaries from the kids.

I just assume that they know how.

And then ignore it (or blame writing teachers or elementary teachers) when the summaries they turned in were terrible.

I have never taken  the time in class to TEACH my students HOW to write a summary.

Until now.

The new KS State Social Studies standards are in, and we are off and running with new requirements asking the kids to stop spitting out random facts and start looking at history like historians do.  Stop memorizing dates, and start DOING.  Part of that "doing" includes much more reading and analyzing of primary source documents.

Here's the thing.  Many historic primary sources are government documents.  Important government documents, like the Declaration of Independence.  Our Founding Fathers (and anyone else in the government world) did not take into account the reading level of middle school students when they set out to change history.  (The nerve...)

Government documents are hard to read.

Trying to get my students to write a summary of the preamble to the Declaration of Independence would have been an EPIC ASSIGNMENT FAIL.  They would look at it, spend so much time trying to figure out what "unalienable" means that they would just slap something on the paper and pray that I would just take a "completion" or "participation" grade on the assignment.

This time I'm preparing them.  I'm going to TEACH them HOW to do this.

**I should mention that we did ALL of this TOGETHER as a class, kids have to be trained on how to do this process first before attempting it on their own.**

Step 1:  Vocab.  I had the kids complete a vocab matching sheet as their bell work.  Words that needed to be explained to 7th graders.  Such as; endowed, dissolve, station, self evident, instituted and so on.  They were to keep this vocab sheet out and use it during our entire activity.

Step 2:  Read the original text.  I gave the kids a worksheet that had the original text RIGHT THERE for them to see.  We read through it as a class using the choral reading strategy (everyone reads aloud together, including the teacher.  LOVE this strategy!)

Step 3:  The Top 10 Key Words.  The next step is choosing the key words of the document.  What has to be there.  There are some rules for the top 10.

1. Students MUST know what the word means in the context of the document. 
2. More than one word can be grouped together if splitting it up would alter the meaning of the word.  (United States needs to be kept together.  I allowed my kids to group "unalienable rights" if they wanted as well.).  

**Be careful here.  Middle School students will think they are outsmarting you and just go through and pick all the big words, or just choose the words you used for vocab at the beginning of the class.  Just because a word is big or on the vocab sheet doesn't always make it a "key word"**

For step 3, I did have the kids divided into groups of 4 and they worked in their groups to come up with a top 10 list and we compiled the lists together and made a class top 10.

Step 4:  Write your summary:  This is the point where the magic happens!  The goal is to now take your top 10 words and use them in your summary.  (It is very important to DO THIS STEP TOGETHER the first few times you do this activity.)  We started slow.  We took the first statement.  "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."  All of my classes had chosen "People" and "Equal" and "unalienable rights" as three of their top 10 words.  Most of my classes ended up with something like this "It is obvious that people are equal and have unalienable rights."  We continued this process throughout the remainder of the text.

 The results?  Awesomeness!

The kids were able to follow the process.  They all participated.  And probably best of all... when we finished they all had a better understanding of the Declaration of Independence!

A few things I realized as we went through this activity.

• I intended to do this ALL aloud together as a class, but found that there were too many kids who weren't paying attention.  So we did parts aloud as a whole class and parts where they would work to rephrase a statement as a group. Then would share results with the class and pick the best one.  The combo of whole class and small group worked wonderfully!
• We had some of our top 10 words left over at the end, and that was ok.  I felt we had a good solid summary at the end of each block.  
• Sometimes the kids realize after they get going that the important words they picked needed to be changed out.  For example, none of my classes chose "government" as a key word, but all of them realized while writing the summary that it needed to be there, so we added it to the list. 
• Summaries should be shorter and more simple than the original text.  I found some of my advanced students wanting to use more complex words than what were originally there.  The point is not to try and sound smarter than the original author.  The point is to SUM it up. 

I am not the creator of this activity.  I learned how to do it through an awesome group called Century of Progress where we got to learn from some of the BEST Social Studies teachers out there.  Tim Bailey is one of them.  He is awesome.  This activity is awesome.  You can read more about it, find examples of worksheets, and probably a better explanation of it) here.

After completing this activity, I am super excited to do it again!